It is common practice when towing a vehicle to provide a trailer hitch or in some cases a ball mechanism on the rear bumper of the vehicle in close proximity to the license plate. These attachment locations for trailers while convenient at providing a secure means for attaching a trailer for pulling a boat or any other purpose are well known in the art. It has been routinely discovered when a driver attempts to back his vehicle up during the procedure of attaching a trailer to his vehicle that the trailer attachment location or tongue can impact into the vehicle license plate or bumper. If the driver is moving sufficiently swiftly or if the trailer is holding a sufficiently large load, a tremendous impact load is created such that the bumper and or license plate can be damaged.
In order to prevent this, various devices have been created, in particular trailer hitch guides have been provided where an angular or v shaped device is mounted and secured by the ball hitch on the rear of a bumper such that when the tongue of the trailer approaches the vehicle during attachment or as the vehicle approaches the tongue of the trailer, the tongue is guided into a location that will force the tongue into the location in proximity of the ball. This is as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,438. The disadvantage of this device is that it is permanently affixed to the bumper and while the guide is there, it can block a large portion of the vehicle license plate from view. In many states anything obstructing the view of the license plate is considered an illegal obstruction of view for law enforcement and is not permitted. Secondarily if the device is made sufficiently low, so as to avoid obstructing the license plate, the tongue will invariably ride over the top of the guide and still impact and damage the license plate. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,694; a trailer hitch including a “V” guide is similarly shown. In this case the “V” guide is attached to a removable hitch assembly commonly referred to as a Reese hitch assembly such that the “V” guide provides a means of directing the tongue of a trailer towards a ball hitch for securing the trailer. This has some advantages in providing a guide for hooking up a trailer, however it does little for protecting a license plate.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,316,433 a license frame bumper guard was designed with a semi-circular projection extending around a license plate frame such that the license plate frame and license plate could be mounted to the vehicle and any impacting car or other obstruction would preferably hit the bumper mounted to the frame. The disadvantage of this device is again it is permanent and secondarily it is provided in a location at the lower extreme of the license plate such that the impact of a trailer tongue hitting the license plate is not prevented and damage and bending of the license plate can still occur as the tongue will simply ride over the top of the bumper directly impacting the plate.
Further ways of protecting license plates include providing one piece transparent license plate protectors of a heavy rigid plastic that would go over the exterior of an entire license plate. While these exterior covers made of high impact strength polycarbonate resins remain substantially transparent and damage resistant during use and do provide some protection for the license plate, it is noted that these are permanent type devices that can discolor over time and generally can cause a reflection that obscures the view and are therefore considered illegal in several states.
A vehicle plate protector and cleaner is described in UK patent application GB 2437779 wherein layers of thin film are adhesively attached over a license plate wherein the layers of thin film can be peeled off as the film discolors with age. The disadvantage of this type of solution to protecting license plates is it does nothing to protect the license plate in the case of a severe impact.
The object of the present invention is to provide a secure and reliable means of protecting a license plate when attaching a trailer to a vehicle. Another object of the present invention is to ensure that the vehicle license plate protector is easily attached and detached from the vehicle license plate and only used during the attachment of the trailer to the vehicle. Thereafter the device can quickly and easily be removed from the license plate as it is no longer needed. By eliminating license plate protectors that are permanently attached to the license plate, the user ensures that his license plate is protected when most needed, but also ensures that the plate protector does not provide an impediment to easy viewing of the license plate during normal use. These and other objectives are described in the application as follows.